A test of Endurance

Trip Start Feb 07, 2005

Trip End Aug 24, 2005

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Where I stayed

Hanoi Youth Hotel

(Hanoi hotels)

Flag of Vietnam Hanoi, Vietnam
Saturday, March 5, 2005

We'd soon seen enough of the capital and decided to move on. Leila, who had originally stated she wished to see the north of Vietnam subsequently changed her mind, much to mine and Rob's relief - she's not a travelling person and we're having all kinds of issues with her so it was good to get a break - Dave was mortified!! So Rob and I booked ourselves onto a 22 hour bus trip to Hanoi and the others to the south of Laos.

The journey was ardious to say the least and the border was nothing short of a pain; we had to pay the Laos officials to leave their country and then pay the Vietnamese to be let into theirs!! They must've claimed all of 3 dollars, scum bags!!!

We arrived Hanoi at 7pm the following day (5th March) after very little sleep due to the ridiculous Lao music the driver had had belting out all night, presumably to keep him awake!! We were swamped by taxi drivers as soon as we got off the bus. We checked to a very useful guest house 'Youth Hotel', where I am still. Hanoi is chaotic to say the least, the city lives on the street; shops open onto the pavements, the stalls line the streets, and the roads are a playground for mopeds - everyone has them and they come at you from every side of the road and from any direction!! It takes a bit of getting used to and a lot of confidence crossing the road - you cant run but dont stop either, the bikes just swerve around you - its totally crazy!! Cars are few and far between but they are usually really expensive like Mercedes or Lexus, clearly you're either really poor or very rich, there doesnt seem to be much middle ground!

If there is one thing you really dont want to lose on foreign soil it has to be your passport but numb-nuts over here has managed to!! After turning the room upside down to no avail, I got the receptionist to call the taxi firm and bus company/station to see if they had found it to no avail again! That was Sunday morning and so that afternoon was spent looking round Hanoi centre wishing it was Monday so the British Embassy was open and trying to find a police station but it turns out the police are so corrupt that they would not help out.

Laurence Posing

That evening we went to see a Water Puppet Show, very bizarre. It was like being in a lecture theatre but the stage was flooded and the puppets enacted some story devised from the paddy fields accompanied by local music. Not to everyone's taste, the guy behind us was asleep snoring.

Monday morning came and I went to the Embassy to sort out my passport and after a couple of frantic calls home (at 3.30ish am GMT) the forms were completed - Happy Mothers Day, just about!!